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Loophole in Son of Sam Law May Help Convicted Mother Get Cash
MINEOLA, N.Y. | It's the hallmark of New York's Son of Sam law and others like it across the nation — convicted criminals should not be able to profit from their crimes.
But legal experts say the case of a Long Island mother who drowned her three children in a bathtub and is now seeking to cash in could succeed because of a loophole. Since Leatrice Brewer was never convicted — instead found not guilty by reason of mental disease — legal experts say she could make a plausible case to receive some of her children's $350,000 estate.
"The Brewer case is a novel circumstance," said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. "The facts do seem to place her outside the scope of the law, although that does not mean there could not be other barriers to her recovering from the estate of her children."
Brewer, 33, slashed her daughter's throat before drowning her and two younger brothers in 2008, believing she was saving them from the deadly effects of voodoo. Hours after the killings, she survived two suicide attempts — swallowing a concoction of home cleaning fluids and later jumping out a second-story window.
She was found not guilty because of mental disease or defect in the deaths of the children, ages 1, 5 and 6, and was committed to a state psychiatric hospital.
A hearing before Nassau County Surrogate Court Judge Edward McCarty next month will determine whether Brewer is entitled to a share of the proceeds from two lawsuits the children's fathers settled with the county; they claimed social workers failed to properly monitor the woman and children.
Caseworkers visited Brewer's apartment two days before the killings and found no one home but neglected to schedule an immediate follow-up visit. Two social workers were later suspended.
"As a human being, I am outraged and disgusted by this," said attorney Thomas Foley, who represents the father of the two slain boys. "As an attorney, I have some level of understanding of why we have to go through this charade, but it is difficult to forget we are here because of the actions of a crazy person who killed her kids."
Kenneth Weinstein, a court-appointed attorney representing any possible unknown heirs who may surface, was just as blunt: "It would stand the law on its ear if she were to receive any proceeds from her own heinous, felonious conduct."
New York was the first state to enact a Son of Sam law in the 1970s following the capture of notorious serial killer David Berkowitz. Its intent was to bar Berkowitz and other criminals from profiting from their crimes through the commercial exploitation of their stories.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law in 1991 for violating the First Amendment's guarantee of free expression, ruling it would have encompassed works including Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X."
New York revised its law in 1992, and the state Senate has passed legislation seven times since 2006 — most recently in July, albeit with little fanfare — to try to address the issue of people held not responsible because of mental disease, said the bill's sponsor, Sen. John Flanagan. Companion legislation has been proposed in the state Assembly but has yet to gain any traction. Assemblyman Charles Lavine said he was optimistic the notoriety of the Brewer case could spark passage.
More than 40 states have enacted similar Son of Sam legislation, though there have been several successful court challenges on First Amendment grounds as well, said David L. Hudson, a scholar with the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Andy Kahan, a victim's rights advocate for the Houston Police Department and a national expert on Son of Sam and related laws, said he knows of no other efforts to close existing loopholes in other states.
"Perhaps as a result of this case, others will go back and look at and consider revising their Son of Sam laws," he said.
Although legal experts agree the case would establish a precedent if Brewer succeeds, she's not expected to see any money because of a $1.2 million lien against her for psychiatric counseling and other services she has received since her arrest. Her court-appointed attorney did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
Maebell Mickens, Brewer's grandmother, disputed that the woman's motivation is money, though she did not offer an alternative explanation.
"She ain't never wanted no money," Mickens told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview.
"I love my granddaughter. I love her dearly, and I miss my great-grandchildren. I long for them; my heart hurts for them every day of my life."
Mickens said she sometimes speaks to Brewer by telephone. "She misses the children; she is still in so much pain. She calls crying and longing to hold her children in her arms again.
"She was a sick girl."


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Last week, The Crunchy Chicken blogged about her Top 5 Biggest Food Gardening Mistakes. Usually I just comment on the blog, but I thought my comments from this year warranted a post of it's own, instead of taking up a page on Deanna's blog.
This year was the first year that I was quite successful with getting my early spring crops in the ground in a timely manner. This led to great lettuce and spinach and peas! Hooray! I am a garden champion! Look at me! And then the lettuce lingered and instead of calling spring gardening done, I let the early crops limp along delaying my main summer planting. And, as a result I learned some valuable lessons…
1. Don't plan on planting summer crops in the same place as your spring crops. I actually thought this would work. But the spring crops will inevitably take too long and if you don't plant your zucchini until July, expect to be the crazy woman who asks her neighbors for zucchini (who actually ASKS for zucchini?). My neighbors were shocked when I came a knockin'. Really. Instead, next year, plan to plant fall crops right behind the spring crops. Keep the summer garden area sacred… a few extra early peas are not worth my beets and tomatoes!
2. Don't water by hand. Normally, we run a drip system in the garden. It saves water and it saves on weeding. This year, we kind of rearranged the garden beds and Rick needed to make a new drip configuration to match. This spring was really rainy so making the system was delayed. By the time it got hot, we were in baby-prep mode and it never happened. We watered by hand. This means, sometimes we watered and sometimes I forgot, and we had an awful lot of weeds. We still have an awful lot of weeds. Tomatoes dried out and then were soaked. What, are we amateurs here? Get a drip system. They save water. they save on weeding. They save your plants.
3. Don't plant your tomatoes in the same place every year. Again with the amateur mistakes. I KNOW these things. I really do. But for whatever reason, I just didn't pay attention. The 13 varieties of heirloom tomatoes I carefully planted (on time!) have produced exactly squat this year, and they've been dying of some mystery disease starting on the West side of the garden and moving East. Yi. I know better. So does Rick. But we did it anyway. Boo hoo.
4. Plant more garlic. This one actually came from a success! We planted garlic last fall for the first time. Garlic is like a miracle! One clove of garlic becomes this gorgeous full head by late spring. Amazing. Delicious! Victory! Plant more! And along these lines, get your neighbor gardening too. Our neighbor's garden was wonderful this year. He enjoyed it, we enjoyed it, and we worked together on it. now he's already plotting and planning for next year. I see a giant pumpkin in my future yet!
5. Cut yourself some slack. This is gardening, not nuclear fission or some other super crazy hard sciencey thing. It's supposed to be fun. And it is, no matter what. So what if we didn't have any zucchini this year – every one always has extras of those lying around. Boo hoo that my tomato plants bit the dust. Instead I was able to find a local farm that will sell me a perfect box of organic Romas that I didn't have to pick myself. And they were really perfect. Oh yeah, and I had a baby in July! Seriously – it's ok to rely on the CSA produce some years. The great thing about gardening is that you get to try again next season. These mistakes are not permanent!
How about you? How did your gardens do this year? What have you learned?

subset: commoncrawl


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Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams. These star-crossed collaborators were fated to make some beautiful music together, both being pioneers in their own genres and innovative creators in all forms of art.
Take a journey with VIBE's Summer 2013 cover stars as we travel through the musical history of both Daft Punk and Pharrell to reveal how intertwined their developing paths are, from collaborative efforts with Louis Vuitton and its don, their contributions to Japanese artists, and composing for a G-rated audience. ->
Photo Credit: Jill Greenberg for VIBE


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Calendar: What's happening in area churches?
What: Mother's Day celebration
When: 10:30 a.m. May 12
Where: Community Baptist, 3548 Rube Spangler Road, Lawndale
Guest preacher: Associate Minister Aleesha Ramseur, Ramseur Baptist, Shelby
Information: 704-538-9904
What: "Honoring Mothers" Mother's Day celebration
When: 11 a.m. May 12
Where: New Way Missionary Baptist, 105 Waco Road, Kings Mountain
Details: Lunch served after the service; speaker is Pastor S. David Webber Sr.
Information: 704-482-4224
What: 10th pastoral anniversary for Pastor Charles and Audrey Webber Family
When: 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. May 5
Where: Mount Olive Baptist, 145 Dixon School Road, Kings Mountain
Details: 11 a.m., Minister Donald Leslie, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Bessemer City; 3 p.m., Rev. Vincent C. Ross, pastor of Maiden Chapel Baptist Church, Maiden; dinner served immediately after the morning worship
Information: church at 704-739-4516 or Pastor Webber at 704-466-4708
What: First pastoral anniversary celebration
When: 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. May 5
Where: New Start Fellowship Church, N.C. 18 South, Shelby
Details: In honor of Pastor Evelyn B. Crosby; speakers include, Pastor Rose Corry, morning service; evening service, Pastor Franklin Huskey
Information: 704-482-8916
What: 33rd Pastoral Anniversary of the Rev. and Mrs. James L. Smith
When: 11 a.m. May 5
Where: Palmer Grove Baptist, Kingstown
Speaker: The Rev. Simon A. McClain
What: 37th anniversary for the Inspirational Youth Choir
When: 3 p.m. May 19
Where: First Baptist, 2912 Austell Road, Earl
Information: 704-438-4847
What: Giant indoor yard sale and The Guys' Fifth Annual Car, Truck, Tractor and Cycle Show
When: May 4
Schedule: 7 a.m., yard sale; 10 a.m.-2 p.m., car show
Where: Elizabeth Baptist, 301 N. Post Road., Shelby
Details: Sponsored by The Guys of Elizabeth Baptist to raise money for youth mission projects, prizes in each category, sausage biscuits, coffee, snacks, hot dogs and drinks available
Registration fee: $20 for first vehicle and $15 for each after
What: Yard sale, car wash, biscuit and hot dog sale
When: 7-10 a.m. May 4
Where: Redeemed Pentecostal Holiness Church, Double Shoals Road, Shelby
Details: Proceeds go to building fund and youth group fund
What: The United Methodist Men's yard sale
When: 7 a.m. May 4
Where: Hoyle Memorial United Methodist 1741 Fallston Road, Shelby
What: Church-wide yard sale
When: 7 a.m.-noon May 4
Where: Pleasant Ridge Baptist, 198 Pleasant Ridge Church Road., Shelby
Details: Rain or shine; breakfast served; furniture, items for children and more; fundraiser sponsored by the youth of the church for the Guatemala mission trip
Information: 704-434-6431, call from 8 a.m. -1 p.m.
What: Yard sale for Westover Baptist WMU
When: 7 a.m.-noon May 4
Where: 1804 Shelby Road, Kings Mountain
Details: Many various items; cancelled if it rains
What: Fish fry and yard sale
When: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 4
Where: Magnolia Center, Lineberger Street, Shelby
Details: Fundraiser for O'Bryan Williams; hot dog plates $5, fish plates $6, drinks $1, dessert $1, hot dogs $2, fish sandwiches $3; baked beans, slaw and chips available
Information: 704-297-8191
What: Barbecue sale
When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. May 4
Where: High Shoals United Methodist, 114 Lincoln St., High Shoals
Details: Delivery available on five or more plates; $7 per plate
Information: 704-616-9280 or 704-813-1332
What: Relay for Life fundraiser
When: 7:30-11 a.m. May 4
Where: Double Springs Baptist Family Life Center
Details: Biscuit breakfast, bake sale, crafts, cancer awareness bracelets, books, soaps, clothes and more; all proceeds go to Relay for Life
What: Yard sale, bake sale and craft sale
When: 7 a.m. May 4
Where: Polkville United Methodist
Details: Proceeds benefit church's scholarship fund
Information: 704-538-9486
What: Annual barbecue
When: 3-7 p.m. May 4
Where: Palm Tree United Methodist, 1160 W. Stagecoach Trail, Lawndale
Details: Cost is $10 for adults, $6 for children ages 6-12, and free for children younger than 6; barbecue pork, chicken with all the trimmings; take out available; whole shoulders with slaw and sauce available for $45 and whole chickens for $10, must be preordered by April 26
Information/to order: Tony Shuford, 704-473-4847
What: Fish fry
When: 4-7 p.m. May 4
Where: Gantt's Grove Baptist, Mooresboro
Details: Menu includes flounder, perch, catfish fillet, chicken tenders, all the fixings, dessert and drink; dine in or take out; will deliver on large orders; $9 for large plate; $6.50 for small plate; children younger than 4 free; proceeds go to Baptist Men projects at the church
What: Breakfast buffet missions fundraiser
When: 7-10 a.m. May 11
Where: Beulah United Methodist, 1534 Stony Point Road, Shelby
Details: Buffet includes bacon, sausage, livermush, eggs, biscuits, pancakes, grits, sausage gravy, fruit cocktail, juice and coffee; cost is $6 for adults and $3 for children younger than 12; all biscuits to go are two for $3
What: Car, truck and motorcycle show
When: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. May 11 (rain date May 18)
Where: Long Branch Road Baptist, Forest City
Details: Secure your entry for $20; trophies awarded for Best Ford, Best Chevy, Best Mopar, Best Truck, Best Import, Best Motorcycle, Most Unique, Pastor's Choice and Top Twenty; to enter/register a car, contact Michael Brown at 828-429-0609 or Laurie Crowe at 828-429-4479; proceeds support the fellowship building fund
What: Seventh Annual Stoney Jackson Mission Golf Tournament
When: 8 a.m. opening, 9 a.m. shotgun start May 11
Where: Kings Mountain Country Club
Details: Proceeds benefit New Life Family Worship Center's in-church and outreach ministries both at home and abroad; entry fee is $200 per team and includes green fee, cart fee and lunch served after golf; sign up early; mulligans available for $5 each; awards and door prizes; hole sponsors available for groups or businesses at $100 each; make checks payable to New Life Family Worship Center, c/o Stoney Jackson, 509 Katherine Ave., Kings Mountain, NC 28086
Information: 704-739-5020 or 704-472-3329 or 704-739-5871
What: Country supper fundraiser for Evie Vaughn
When: 4:30-7 p.m. May 11
Where: Lawndale Missionary Methodist, Lane Street, Lawndale
Details: Dine in or carry out; $8 for adults, $4 for kids younger than 10; donations accepted; menu includes pintos, country fried potatoes, livermush, slaw, meatloaf, cornbread, onions, pickles, desserts, tea and coffee
Information: 704-538-5398
What: Hot dog supper and singing
When: 4:30-5:30 p.m. May 11
Where: Mulls Memorial Baptist
Details: Music by A Handful of Purpose and the 3:16 Band; all events free but donations appreciated; proceeds support mission projects; outdoor event so bring a chair or blanket
What: 15th Annual Youth Fundraiser Golf Tournament for Boiling Springs Baptist
When: 1 p.m. tee off May 17
Where: River Bend YMCA Golf Club
Details: $50 per person, $200 per team; $100 hole sponsor; proceeds go to the youth summer missions and camp experience
Information: Wesley Smith at 704-434-6244 or email email@example.com
What: Country style buffet breakfast
When: 6:30-10 a.m. May 18
Where: Central United Methodist, 113 S. Piedmont Ave., Kings Mountain
Menu: Eggs, bacon, sausage, livermush, country ham, gravy, biscuits, grits, coffee, juice, and milk
Details: Donations only; asking $6 for adults, $5 for seniors 60 and older, $3 for children 6-12, free for children younger than 6; all-you-can-eat breakfast; proceeds go toward the Costa Rica mission trip
Information/directions: 704-739-2471 or 704-472-8584
What: "Awake, Church! Revival"
When: 6:30 p.m. May 3-5
Where: First Baptist Church, Icard
Details: Free event; community invited
Speakers: Marty Jacumin, Icard native and former N.C. State football player, pastor of Bay Leaf Baptist, Raleigh; Dr. Mark Harris, president of Baptist State Convention of N.C. and pastor of First Baptist, Charlotte; Dr. Chris Schofield, director of the Office of Prayer at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina; Dr. Larry S. McDonald, dean of the Graduate School of Christian Ministry, North Greenville University; Dr. Keith Whitfield, associate dean for Institutional Effectiveness, The College at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Dr. Michael Pardue, pastor of First Baptist, Icard
Information: 828-397-3451 or email email@example.com
What: Healing and deliverance revival
When: 7 nightly May 6-8
Where: Grace Community Church, 505 Blanton St., Shelby
Details: Guest revivalist, Apostle Lonzo Guthrie III and Prophetess Corinthy Guthrie, pastor and co-pastor of New Life Milk and Honey International Ministries, Shelby, and Guthrie Ministries, Gaffney; revival features the apostolic and prophetic anointing power of healing, deliverance, restoration and miracles
Information: 704-600-6451
What: Youth revival
When: 7 each evening May 8-10
Where: Palmer Grove Baptist Church, Kingstown
Speaker: The Rev. Pia Jessup, pastor of Jericho AME Zion
What: Annual spring revival
When: 7 nightly May 13-15
Where: Macedonia Baptist, 235 A.W. Black St., Waco
Guest speaker: The Reverend Caryer Dennis Rector, Pastor of Piney Grove Baptist, Cowpens, S.C.
Information: 704-435-8842
What: Revival
When: 7 nightly May 13-17
Where: Unity Independent Baptist, 1700 N. Lafayette St., Shelby
Guest Speaker: Evangelist Danny Castle
Information: 704-471-0370 or 704-747-3950
What: Gospel tent meeting
When: 7:30 nightly May 13-24
Where: 610 E. Grover St., Shelby
Details: Multiple guest speakers and singers; free clothing and food give-away, anointing preaching, praise teams, testimonies, anointed music and prayer; bus service available if needed, call 828-205-6174; sponsored by Christ Temple Church
Information: Bishop Louis McDowell, 828-205-6174
What: Tent revival for Jesus
When: 7:30 p.m. May 14-18
Where: Main Street and Hawthorne Lane, S.C. 321, Clover, S.C.
Details: Speaker is Evangelist Scott Callahan of Fort Mill, S.C.; prayer for the sick, live music, singing nightly
What: Singing
When: 7 p.m. May 4
Where: Ledford Grove Baptist, 327 E. Double Shoals Road, Lawndale
Details: Featuring Higher Ground
Information: Jackie Price, 704-538-6803
What: Gospel concert featuring Southland Gospel Quartet
When: 6 p.m. May 5
Where: Sandy Run Baptist, 210 E. Church St., Mooresboro
Details: Free admission; love offering collected during concert
Information: 704-434-6771 or visit www.sandyrunbaptist.org
What: Appreciation singing program for Reverend Nathaniel Craig
When: 6 p.m. May 5
Where: Walls Memorial Baptist, 2223 Elizabeth Ave., Shelby
Details: Featuring the Sunlight Gospel Singers of Forest City, the Tellaneer Gospel Singers of Forest City, the Golden Harmoneers of Shelby, and the Male and Mass Choir of Walls Memorial
Information: 704-484-3433
What: Singing
When: 6 p.m. May 5
Where: Redeemed Pentecostal Holiness Church, Double Shoals Road, Shelby
Details: Featuring Jonas Journey and others
What: Higher Ground singing
When: 6 p.m. May 14
Where: Mulls Memorial Baptist
What: God's Chosen Ministry has relocated to a new location
Where: 113 Weather St., Shelby (Old Genesis Mortuary)
Worship times: Sunday Morning at 11 a.m.; Midweek bible study, Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Pastor: Elder Shannon Wright
What: "Celebrating Seniors" senior adult rally
When: 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. May 4 (registration, 8:45 a.m.)
Where: Poplar Springs Baptist, 1106 Poplar Springs Church Road, Shelby
Details: Lunch served; call the Greater Cleveland County Baptist Association office to sign up; no charge; featuring speakers, a magic show, a visiting clown, music, door prizes and chalk talk
Information: 704-482-3472
What: Boiling Springs Crossroads Festival
When: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. May 4
Where: South Main Street, Boiling Springs
Details: Crafts, food, rides, inflatables, live musical performances, fireworks
What: Free concert for Mom
When: 6:45 p.m. May 11
Where: Westview Baptist, 500 Melody Lane, Shelby
Details: Free concert features Zachary Vanderburg accompanied by Meagan Balsom; folk songs, children's songs, lullabies and spirituals; prelude by Josh Haney, pianist; childcare provided
What: Fashion show
When: 3 p.m. May 18
Where: Hopewell Baptist, Shelby
Details: A senior missionary event
What: Mother-daughter brunch
When: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. May 11
Where: People's Baptist, 1010 Groves St., Kings Mountain
Details: Keynote speaker, Minister Sheila Webber of Wesley Chapel Holiness Church, Mount Holly; brunch served immediately after the program; semi-formal event; theme is red and white; no cost but donations accepted.
Information: RSVP to Sister Fonda Houze at 704-740-6046 or 704-739-0195
What: Women's Day
When: 11 a.m. May 12
Where: Macedonia Baptist, 235 A.W. Black St., Waco
Guest speaker: Minister Oveda Miller of New Hope Baptist, Charlotte
Information: 704-435-8842
SEND US YOUR NEWS: Send announcements to Church News, The Star , P.O. Box 48, Shelby, NC 28151, fax to 704-484-0805 or email to email@example.com. Church news must be received by Wednesday at noon to be published the following Friday on a space available basis. Type or print announcements on an 8½-by-11-inch sheet of paper. Include church address and contact telephone number.


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These easy-to-make gluten-free peanut butter cookies are sealed with a kiss – Hershey's Kisses placed on the cookies while they are still warm from the oven.
The bonus: The cookies are naturally gluten free, with no flour at all, making them good crowd-pleasers. Plus, the peanut butter packs a protein punch, which we're always looking for in our house. Thank you to my friend Rebecca who provided the flourless peanut butter cookie recipe. I just added a kiss.
Peanut butter jars can easily become contaminated by bread crumbs spread on a sandwich knife. We always have two jars of peanut butter and two jars of jelly in our house, marked in permanent marker: GF ONLY and NOT GF. My mother has a squeeze bottle of jelly, so crumbs don't get in the jar.
I'm a crunchy, natural peanut butter fan. True, natural peanut butter is a pain. The oil separates, so you need to plunge your knife into the jar to mix it up, inevitably resulting in an overflowing mess.
Still, one look at the ingredients and you'll be convinced to go natural. Most peanut butters contain sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oil. Even mainstream natural brands like Skippy Natural and Jiff Natural contain added sugar, palm oil and salt.
By contrast, Trader Joe's organic crunchy unsalted peanut butter has one ingredient: peanuts. And the Whole Foods 365 Everyday PB has two ingredients: peanuts and salt (though, curiously, their 365 Organic brand has added palm oil).
While you're at it, check your jam or jelly. Most contain high-fructose corn syrup. Who needs that? Buy a brand that contains simply fruit or is sweetened with other fruit juices.
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
(gluten-free, dairy, kid-friendly)
By Gluten-Free Nosh
Printable recipe
- 1 cup natural chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Hershey's Kisses, unwrapped
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together peanut butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, baking soda and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
2. Using moistened hands, roll dough into 1-inch balls. (If the peanut butter mixture is too dry and not sticking together, you can add a teaspoonful of milk to the bowl.)
3. Place peanut butter balls on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Space cookies 2 inches apart; they will spread.
4. Bake cookies until puffed and golden, about 10-12 minutes.
5. Immediately after removing baking sheets from oven, gently place a Hershey's Kiss on top of each cookie.
6. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Yield: 24 to 36 cookies.


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Having tipped the Storm to win back to back premierships, I am still in shock at the hammering Manly dished out to Melbourne in the NRL Grand Final yesterday. In fact the victory was the largest winning margin of NRL Grand Final history, with a 40-0 thumping of the Storm.
It was a match that signalled the end of various careers, especially that of Steve Menzies (349 games) for Manly and Matt Geyer's for Melbourne. Menzies (known as 'Beaver') completed his NRL career on top, while Mat Geyer will remember his last game as a heart-breaking loss.
Having been the best team in the competition until the final series, Melbourne began their fall from premiership glory with a loss to New Zealand in their first finals match of the season. Having barely defeated Brisbane in the following game, the Storm beat Cronulla before advancing to the Grand Final.
Questions are now being asked as to the immediate future of the Melbourne Storm – is this the beginning of the end of Melbourne's NRL domination, will they make the finals next year, etc? However, all of this talk of a declining Melbourne side seems a little premature at this stage. Certainly they performed well below their best during the final series, but they remain a great side, though they will loose some great players before next season. Mat Geyer, Michael Crocker and Israel Folau will all be gone from the Storm next year.
The Manly side finished the year on the same points as Melbourne (as did Cronulla), though Melbourne were the Minor Premiers on for and against. Manly were the deserved winners of the Grand Final and were by far the superior team in the finals series.
Manly prop Brent Kite took out the Clive Churchill Medal as man of the match. Matt Orford was the Dally M Player of the Year.
BELOW: Cooper Cronk Speech after loosing the Grand Final


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The developers behind the GNOME project have announced the official release of GNOME 3.0, a significant redesign of the open source desktop environment. The update introduces a new desktop shell that offers a streamlined window management workflow and a more modern look and feel. The new version also represents a major architectural overhaul, with many important enhancements to the GNOME platform's technical underpinnings.
The effort to deliver GNOME 3.0 has a long history. It took the developers years to reach a consensus about how to proceed with the new version, and years more to implement it. The protracted development period has largely paid off in stability and coherence. It's fit for duty out of the starting gate, though there is still plenty of room for further improvement.
Many of the substantial and far-reaching changes that the new shell brings to the GNOME user experience are compelling and thoughtfully crafted. The new desktop will likely appeal to users who share GNOME's philosophy of debris-free computing, but there are parts that seem to have been pared down too aggressively. The whole environment is significantly less configurable than its predecessor and is missing a handful of important features.
History and culture
The original vision for a new GNOME environment first surfaced in 2005 and became known as Topaz, a wordplay on the phrase three-point-zero. This initial effort to revitalize the desktop failed to gain traction among the GNOME development community which felt that substantial changes were unnecessary and would cause undesirable disruption for users.
The decision resulted in very gradual stagnation, eventually leading to a general feeling among some contributors of frustration with the lack of direction and technical progress in the desktop environment. That era is best described by Andy Wingo's historic GNOME Decadence essay. The desire for new innovation caused a new GNOME 3.0 plan to materialize in 2008, finally winning broad support among the developers.
At the time, the goal was to deprecate legacy APIs and gradually replace some of the underlying infrastructure without making major changes to the user-facing parts of the stack. The plan changed drastically when an effort to improve the traditional GNOME panel led to the emergence of the GNOME Shell project, which soon became a key part of the GNOME 3.0 update. It has been under active development since that time and has only now reached maturity.
The predictability and conservativeness of GNOME's release management strategy and development model have played a huge role in driving the GNOME desktop environment's popularity among Linux distributors and other commercial stakeholders. The initial trepidation among the GNOME developers about moving ahead with a major update was partly based on concerns about how a huge half-baked overhaul would impact all of the users who rely on GNOME in production environments. It was obvious from the start that a 3.0 plan had to minimize that kind of friction and the finished product had to land on its feet.
A lot of care and attention has clearly been devoted to making sure that GNOME 3.0 is fully baked. Years of intensive work by many volunteer and paid developers have resulted in the current product. Virtually all of the underlying infrastructure was ready last year, but the release was pushed back into 2011 in order to facilitate a final redesign of the shell user interface and allow everything to settle in. The extra six months of polish is evident in the new version's relative maturity.
Although GNOME 3.0 offers a fairly robust desktop, there is one issue that significantly detracts from its reliability. Hardware-accelerated rendering is absolutely essential to creating a modern and competitive desktop computing experience, but the poor state of Linux graphics drivers makes it very difficult for software developers to rely on that capability. The open source drivers are hit-and-miss, and the proprietary binary-only drivers from the major hardware manufacturers are buggy and prone to misbehavior.
The new GNOME Shell is built largely with the Clutter drawing toolkit and depends on composited rendering to function properly. If you don't have compatible graphics hardware or drivers, you won't get to run the new shell. It will instead punt you back to a more conventional 2.x-style desktop with regular GNOME panels.
There are also some driver and hardware combinations that can run the shell, but exhibit really bad behavior. For example, I noticed some bizarre visual artifacts and eventually encountered a fatal error when I tried to use the openSUSE-based environment on my desktop computer with NVIDIA graphics hardware. The Fedora version, which is what I used for this review, worked properly on the same computer.
It's a big caveat that hangs like a raincloud over a desktop that is otherwise very stable. It doesn't seem like there is much more that the GNOME developers can do to address the issue at this point. It's really going to be up to the distros to ensure that working drivers are available.
User experience
The new shell is designed to be simple and unobtrusive. Basic task management functionality has been swept off the screen entirely and is accessible through a dashboard view that doubles as a workspace manager and application launcher.
In the standard desktop view, you will see your windows open on the screen and a status bar at the top. The right-hand side of the status bar has pop-down bubbles that work like Ubuntu's indicator menus. These allow you to control audio volume, manage your network, and globally set a presence status. At the center is a clock that pops down to display a calendar and upcoming appointments. The left-hand side has the Activities trigger and a slot that displays the currently running application.
When you click the Activities trigger or move your mouse cursor to the top-left corner of the screen, the shell will display the launcher and window manager. The window management view shows you an Exposé-like spread of the windows that you have open on your current workspace.
Predictably, clicking a window in the window management view will give that window focus and take you back to the regular desktop. You can also easily close windows from this view by hovering over a window thumbnail and clicking a black "X" icon that will appear over the window. You can use the scroll wheel to expand a particular window in the spread to get a closer look at its contents.
There is a bar along the left-hand side that works like a standard task dock. The bar has launchers for your favorite applications and will show highlighted icons for the applications that are running across all of your workspaces. You can switch into the full application launcher view by clicking the Applications item at the top of the screen. This will show launchers for all of your software and allow you to filter it by category. The launcher view works basically as expected and did what I need it to do. There is a convenient built-in search box, with find-as-you-type functionality, that you can use to activate an application.
The right-hand side of the window management interface is dominated by the workspace tower. You will see blocks representing all of your open workspaces, with thumbnail views of the windows that are open in each space. Unlike conventional virtual desktops, the new GNOME workspaces aren't preconfigured in a static arrangement. In the simplest use case, there will always be at least one active workspace and one empty space. When you drag a window into the empty space, it basically spawns a new workspace. When you remove all of the windows from a workspace, it will disappear.
This fluid and dynamic approach to workspace allocation is much saner and more flexible than the conventional virtual desktop model. As some readers will probably recognize, a similar concept appeared in the Moblin netbook shell back in 2009. It's a lot more fluid and polished in GNOME 3.0, however. This was easily my favorite feature in GNOME 3.0 and it stands out as a really solid bit of design work.


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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentines are expressing outrage over the latest scandal to emerge from Justin Bieber's wild tour through Buenos Aires, saying the way he treated the Argentine flag shows he has no respect for his fans or the country.
Videos from Saturday night's concert show how Bieber reacted when fans tossed two Argentine flags onto the stage. Most musicians on world tours usually hold up the flags in appreciation to their fans.
Not Bieber. The videos show him treating the flags like dirty rags, using his shoes and then a microphone stand to sweep them off the stage.
Bieber's manager Scooter Braun tweeted that Bieber will be back to Argentina. He might want to think carefully on that: Insulting Argentina's flag is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison.


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Madden 'ratings czar' not always a hit in locker room
DENVER – Donny Moore can be the most reviled man in NFL locker rooms.
He's not a coach, a referee or a drug tester. He has never played or coached a game. Still, NFL players – and millions of fans – can't wait to see what he has to say.
Moore is the "ratings czar" for "Madden NFL," the man responsible for making sure the popular video game's virtual avatars accurately reflect their real-life counterparts.
Moore uses all sorts of metrics and measurements to come up with ratings. Then, he tweaks the numbers weekly after watching all the games and pondering feedback from fans and even the players themselves.
Sometimes aging stars first recognize their careers are on the downslopes when the new Madden game arrives in August and their ratings have slipped.
They'll let Moore know they disagree, often using Twitter or even sending him a YouTube video.
"It's usually more tongue-in-cheek versus truly getting upset," Moore said by phone from Orlando, Florida, where he works for EA Sports.
Only one time, Moore said, he felt he truly angered a player. Moore won't name the player, but when an EA Sports film crew went to scan the face of the Arizona Cardinals player, he asked them to deliver an "F-bomb-filled" message to Moore.
Save for the select few superstars like Richard Sherman or Peyton Manning who earn 99s and 98s on Moore's 1-to-100 scale, nobody ever seems to be happy with their ranking.
"My ratings haven't been very good. So, based off of that, I guess I'm not a fan," Bills running back Fred Jackson said with laugh. "But he has a hard job to do. There's, I don't know, 1,800 of us? And he's not going to make all 1,800 of us happy."
Moore, 36, uses a 1-to-100 rating scale for dozens of categories, including strength, catching, jumping, speed, awareness and toughness.
"Everybody thinks they're a 100," said Bills wide receiver Mike Williams. "No matter what you get, you're not going to like it."
Moore dives through data, comparing 40-yard dash times for speed, 10-yard split times to determine acceleration and 20-yard shuttles for agility.
"We're trying base our real numbers in the real world," he said.
To fine-tune his assessments, he goes to the video. After all, Jerry Rice ran the 40-yard dash in a relatively pokey 4.71 seconds, but you'd never know that by the way he played.
"So, really, for a receiver, for example, we're trying to capture game speed with pads on, not how fast you run in a straight line on a short lawn in a T-shirt," Moore said.
Sometimes video game players complain a player is too good. Or the game designers complain that Moore has guys rated so highly in certain categories that it throws the game off-kilter.
Among the guys he underestimated were Washington running back Alfred Morris and Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, both of whom started a season with mid-60s ratings and finished in the high 80s. It works the other way, too. Ray Rice started last season at 95 and finished at 82.
With the new Madden game coming out next week, Moore has been busy getting feedback from players hearing about their ratings.
Giants punter Steve Weatherford was upset over his 45 strength rating. Strength might not be important for a punter, but Weatherford isn't a typical kicker.
"He's on the cover of some sort of fitness magazine," Moore said. "He looks like he should be in UFC. So, as a result of seeing that and reading some stories that he bench presses 400 pounds, I immediately boosted his strength rating up to 88."
Moore got an earful after rating Ravens offensive lineman Marshall Yanda as the 26th-toughest player in Baltimore.
"All his teammates were basically upset about it. Everybody's like, 'There's not 25 people in the world tougher than Marshall Yanda,'" Moore said. "So, that got my attention. And then there was a story written about him how he played on a broken leg. Same thing with a separated shoulder. So, I'm like, OK, yeah, this guy's tough. I'll move him up to a 98."
Some positions are harder to grade than others. Offensive lineman don't have many stats to study. Moore turns to sites that do advanced metrics such as Pro Football Focus and Football Outsiders.
"You plug in data points wherever possible," Moore said. "Obviously, a lot of it is subjective and that's where the real art comes into it."
Moore is known for correcting mistakes.
Titans receiver Justin Hunter's was one of the country's top high jumpers in college, so he was not happy with his rookie jumping rating.
"When Madden came out this year, they had my jumping at 95, so … they did it right," Hunter said.
Moore started at Electronic Arts in 1999 as a game tester after winning a one-day tournament of the college football game, "NCAA 99." He was eating lunch at the student union at the University of Central Florida – where he was studying political science with dreams of getting into law school – when he noticed a banner announcing the tourney and decided to skip class that afternoon.
He chatted up the game designers during the tourney, impressing them with minutiae, informing them their right-footed punter was actually left-footed in real life.
After he won, they offered him a summer job.
"And I'd get to test next year's game and play it before anyone else? Heck yeah."
A few months later, he was offered a full-time gig, so he put his schooling on hold. He took over Madden ratings in 2009.
Moore wasn't much of an athlete as a kid, giving up football at 12.
"I just never really had the size-speed combo you need to play high school football," Moore said. "But, my God, I had a passion for the NFL draft and that whole process for my whole life. As far back as I can remember, I would be doing mock drafts on a big yellow pad. I loved to compare things and I loved to read things.
"I loved to see who was the best at something. I just like to see how it's ranked, how the numbers come out."


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SEATTLE — A protracted labor dispute between a northwest Washington berry grower and farmworkers has reached a federal court.
Last week, attorneys filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle against Sakuma Bros. Farms, saying the farmers deprived fieldworkers of their paid rest breaks and did not provide accurate paperwork recording their hours worked, which stops them from checking if they were paid accurately.
The lawsuit is the latest episode at the Skagit County farm that grows strawberries and blueberries. During the summer, hundreds of farmworkers went on strike several times to protest their wages and living conditions. Later on, the owner posted security guards at living compounds, but they were removed by a local judge.
Sakuma Bros. is a family-owned enterprise run by Steve Sakuma that's has been farming since the 1930s. The workers are mostly from Mexico.
The lawsuit, which was filed by attorneys from legal aid organization Columbia Legal Services and the firm Terrell Marshall Daudt &Willie, is seeking class-action status on behalf of about 400 workers. The lawsuit's plaintiff now is Raul Merino Paz, who worked at the farm this summer.
"I brought the case to seek justice for hundreds of workers who do hard work in the fields, without rest breaks, for low wages," Merino said in a statement. "With our low wages, it is especially hard to receive less than we are owed."
Adam Belzberg, an attorney for the farm, said he's still reviewing the claims in the complaint but added that "the Sakumas have always treated their workers with the most utmost dignity and respect and provided them with fair and well-paying jobs."
The lawsuit also says Sakuma Bros. broke an agreement with the fieldworkers reached over the summer on how to calculate wages for blueberry picking.
While farmworkers are entitled to be paid at least minimum wage for a day's work, their wages are determined by how much product they pick during a day, which is a common practice. Throughout the day, workers pick buckets of product that are weighed by a field supervisor.
Paz's attorneys say that under state law, workers are entitled to a 10-minute paid break every four hours of work, but the Sakumas did not account for the paid break in the wages they paid to the workers.
"The workers did not feel like they have the opportunity to take breaks," said Dan Ford of Columbia Legal Services.
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Return policy
We want you to feel comfortable and confident when shopping at StiCool, that's why we offer a 14-day return policy. If there's any quality issue with the products, please contact our customer service. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase for other personal reasons, you can contact us within 14 days of receiving your order, and you will receive a refund (minus service fees) for items returned in their original condition. Please note that we can only issue the refund after we have received the returned items.
Return Conditions
1. All items must be returned in their original condition, without scratches or signs of wear, and must not be resized or altered in any way. Items are treated as used if the sealing sticker on the packaging inside the shipping box is removed or tempered with.
2. We don't accept return, but if you have any question on your purchase, contact us through email or customer service, we will do our best to help you out.
3. Items returned without authorization will not be accepted.
4. When returning or exchanging items, customers must use a shipping method that has tracking on it. Returns with no tracking will not be processed.
5. For return, any promotional gifts received must be included with the returned items. Otherwise, the retail price of the promotional gift will be deducted from the refund.
Note: Please do not send your return to the shipping address on your package. That is not our return address and will affect the processing of your return. We will provide shipping instructions once you submit your returns request.
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Please email email@example.com or leave message on this page, we are more than happy to help you!


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If you are anything like me, you find yourself drooling over the huge piles of late summer produce at the market. I am scarfing down peaches, tomatoes, and pluots like they are going out of style. I guess that is the point... these delights of summer are not gonna to be around for long. So let's talk more about preserving. We made pickles last go around, now it's time for preserving tomatoes!
I love the rich, sweetness of an oven-roasted tomato. And I am particularly drawn to the caramelized taste of this slow roasted version. I hope you like it too!
(printable recipe)
- 2 pounds fresh tomatoes (I am addicted to Dry Farmed Early Girls - they may not look fancy, but the flavor is unbeatable in my opinion)
- olive oil
- sea salt
- optional: 1 tablespoon sugar
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (or the lowest setting). Slice small tomatoes in half and spread them out over a metal baking sheet. (If you are using big heirlooms, cut them into quarters or even eighths.) Lightly drizzle olive oil over the tops of the tomatoes. Sprinkle generously with sea salt. And I like to sprinkle on a bit of sugar too, just to add to that caramely goodness.
Check your tomatoes after a couple of hours and see what you think. I have read about people cooking tomatoes in this fashion and leaving them in the 200-250 degree oven for anywhere from 1.5 to 6 hours. I found that they are just right for me after about 3 hours.
You can go ahead and eat the roasted tomatoes right away - they are hard to resist. But if you want to keep a taste of summer for a cold autumn day, place the roasted tomatoes in a jar, cover them with olive oil and keep in the fridge until later.


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AquaOptimizers - LivingWater charged and saturated with LifeForce
Give every drink a healthy dose of Life Energy (Chi, Prana, Orgone).
Use with methods of ADM (Astro Dynamic Manifestation) and to custom-design the Dynamic Feng Shui+ energies of your choice.
When charging purified water, the AO Aqua Optimizer devices...
Removes the noxious information,
A taste that's excellent, to the point of being addictive
A very special dual purpose Chi Generator®:
The Story of Water
Water is the stuff of life.
You can think of Water as a living being. When it comes from the spring, it literally is alive, it is the stuff of life, it enlivens! It is living when coming from clean springs, continues in healthy rivers all the way to the ocean, and you can consider the ocean itself as being the largest living organism on the planet.
This certainly is not the water that we get!
Destruction of the natural state of water (literally killing it) by mistreatment and pollution has been one of the earliest sins of humans. Such destructive behavior usually went hand in hand with the establishment of large population centers. Naturally then, such large cities were a breeding ground of numerous diseases, such as epidemics of typhoid fever and cholera, that resulted from abuse, mismanagement and overuse of water.
What humans do to water
1. Humans destroy the natural flow of water by damming it up, straightening rivers, piping, etc. (re. Schauberger) much of which, considering the large populations, seems necessary. Alternative technologies that enliven water while it comes to us have been developed. It can be done and there is little incentive, or political will, to do so!
3. Pollution by safe levels of radioactivity
Those are well-known factors of pollution, and most people are well aware of the fact that there is something deeply wrong with the water that they drink.
4. Pollution by EMF: This is a form of pollution of which few people are aware. It is the result of the "memory" of water.
In fact, the knowledge that water has a memory is quite old.
In fact, this important characteristic of being a carrier of information is more pronounced in water than in most other matter that we know. This is so, because unlike other carriers of information, such as crystals, water can be ingested with ease.
This programmability of water is certainly a disadvantage when it comes to clearing up the pollution: Distillation or reverse osmosis, in a lesser degree filtering, gets rid of most material pollutants, while there is no impact upon the noxious information that this industrially processed and then purified water is carrying. Before and during the process of industrial purification to create tap water, it is also exposed to massive electromagnetic frequencies; one of its effects is the generating of DOR (deadly orgone).
On the other hand, the programmability of water turns out to be an advantage, when it comes to the removing the noxious information.
Quick Fix : Tap water
Chemical, bacterial, etc., pollutants are so strong that industrial processing of the dead and heavily polluted river water into tap water is a must. In this process, many of the worst pollutants are removed, chlorine is added to kill bacteria and healthful fluoride is added as forced a medication for all, whether people need it or not. In fact, it is well known that fluoridation of water is a cheap, even lucrative, way to get rid of an industrial waste product.
This industrial processing is the poorest of all patch-ups. In this type processing, the worst chemical pollutants such as heavy metals are filtered out down to levels that are considered safe for human consumption. Various additives such as protective chlorine to kill bacteria and healthful fluoride (speak: forced medication for all!) give it a bad taste, so bad, in fact, that most people do not want to drink it. This situation helps pad the pockets of soft drink companies, of course.
Is it drinkable?
Nobody in his or her right mind drinks that stuff. Tap water is a far cry from pure living water as we can get it from a clean spring.
Ask the people who are purchasing bottled water what they think of tap water! And most other people still do not know, for one reason or another, just how much there is wrong with the tap water that they drink, and that these problems are of a scope which is massive indeed!
This sad situation led to other quick fixes of additional water filtering.
To the various brands of bottled water traces of mineral salts, which the promoters of those products call electrolytes, are added. Further processing to enhance the taste of water includes ozonating, oxygenating, alkalizing (adding traces of baking soda or sodium chlorite, which is bleach in real English), and more.
This purified and processed water is not living water, of course, it is still dead. Moreover, the noxious information from chemicals, EMF pollution, etc., is still attached. In our test, you will soon get the evidence that such water simply does not have the taste of living water.
The next step is removal of noxious information and, in most cases, adding to the water its original information. Especially when water has been exposed to industrial processing, polluting, EMF pollution, etc., it is important to cancel out all that negative programming and to revitalize it with beneficial properties. The result of this work is a marked difference in taste. This is water that began to be alive again. The taste buds speak a clear language in this case! By now, the fact that water is a carrier of information, which was a disadvantage in the process of successive pollution, turns out to be an invaluable asset. Humans knew about this characteristic of water long ago and they have used it throughout history. Just think of the holy water in churches, the power of the springs in holy places such as Lourdes, and homeopathy. There are various effective methods to achieve these results, i.e., the removal of noxious information and replacing it with something enlivening and positive. Revitalized water has the characteristics of water as it is supposed to be. What such water still lacks is life force.
Although controversial in the eyes of many (including the soft drink industry, I suppose), such treatments are valid attempts to get rid of imprints of noxious materials (we talked about the memory of water before), and some of them can also bring water back to its natural, living, state.
In brief, most of these methods make water drinkable, even addictive.
Distilled water or other reconstituted water is put into an orgone accumulator or put next to an orgone generator®. With this method, water is saturated with life energy. This water energizes the person who drinks it. The water tastes much better and most people feel the energy boost right away. Usually the noxious information is removed only partially. For this reason, the typical orgone water has a very slight bitter aftertaste.
This AQUA OPTIMIZER CHI GENERATOR® combines the best of the last two methods.
Removes the noxious information,
Living water that is charged with life force (Chi energy) stays fresh much longer as a result of significant microbiological changes towards a healthy environment
You can make living water (water that has been revitalized to its natural energetic state and saturated with Chi energy - life force) with ease:


text:
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Scientists have built a self-organizing system of synthetic particles that assemble into clusters in a way that mimics the complicated organization of flocks of birds or colonies of bacteria. The particles form a "living crystal" that moves, swirls, and adjusts to heal cracks.
Self-assembly is a common way to build materials. Often, individual building blocks stick together due to inherent attractions, like bases of DNA bonding to form a nanotube, proteins gathering to form a helical virus coat, or nanospheres gathering to form a photonic crystal.
But what draws flocks of starlings, schools of fish, or rafts of ants together? Flocking or schooling can be a social behavior. However, the similarities among these phenomena, regardless of the creatures involved, led NYU's Jérémie Palacci and his colleagues to wonder if an underlying physical principle could also govern the organization process.
Moving flocks are considered out-of-equilibrium because the movement of each individual in the group causes the equivalent of a flux of energy in the flock. Self-assembling DNA, on the other hand, snaps together under equilibrium conditions—just mix complementary bases in solution and they'll find each other as they drift through the liquid.
The scientists wondered if they could recreate an out-of-equilibrium system using synthetic particles, ensuring that any aggregation could not be due to social interactions. They built synthetic particles using nanoscale cubes of hematite surrounded by a polymer shell. Each cube moves due to a light-triggered chemical reaction. When the researchers shine blue light on these particles, hydrogen peroxide decomposes on an exposed portion of the metallic cubes. That sets up a gradient of peroxide in the solution, with lower concentrations of peroxide next to the cube and higher concentrations further away.
The metallic particles follow that gradient with essentially random motion. But when two particles get close to each other, their induced gradients interact and draw the particles together. With enough particles in the solution, they cluster into crystals.
These crystals rotate, crack, and reorganize to heal defects. This "living crystal" behavior was quite striking and surprising, Palacci says. And it's completely due to the out-of-equilibrium nature of the system. When the scientists turn off the blue light, the chemical reaction at the surface of the particles stops, the crystal disintegrates, and individual particles disperse in the solution.
The scientists can also control the movement of the particles and the living crystals with an external magnetic field. Now Palacci says they're studying how the shape of the particles influences the aggregation.
Self-assembly could be a way to build microscale devices like solar cells. Palacci says this "living crystal" could find interesting applications in materials science—in self-healing materials, for example, or ones that change their physical properties on demand.
Science, 2013. DOI: 10.1126/science.1230020 (About DOIs).


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Salt Lake Temple - Liberation by Robert A Boyd
Build Time: unless in stock, this product is made to order in our facility in American Fork, UT in 3-5 business days.
Image Description:
About the Artist:
ROBERT A. BOYD, a professional photographer since 1995, Robert traveled the world photographing for clients, winning numerous awards, including the national 2004 PPA Photographer of the Year Award and 2005 Utah Best of State Award. He strives to illuminate his photographic art with peace, light and balance. A Utah native, he currently resides in Houston Texas with his wife and their five children.
About Altus Fine Art:
As individuals, we are all drawn, as Paul said, to seek after that which is pure, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. For the last 20 years, we at Altus Fine Art have been blessed to work with many artists who have bravely dedicated their talents to create artwork that lifts our hearts and souls and inspires us to live Christ-centered lives.
Our mission is to take this wonderful artwork and create affordable products for the average family or individual while still using quality materials and design. Our prices range from small prints that sell for less than a dollar up to large breathtaking masterpieces that sell for thousands of dollars and everything in between.
Altus Fine Art is a small company of individuals dedicated to making a difference in the world. We design, manufacture, and ship most of our products locally from our facility in American Fork, Utah. We welcome any feedback you have about our products or the way we do business. If any of our products have helped you in any way, we are grateful for the opportunity to serve.


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Mark Hunt will face Sean McCorkle on the preliminary card of UFC 119. If you're not a Mark Hunt fan, then you're not interested about this news.
As we all know since last month, UFC 119 will feature a bloody battle between two famous Heavyweights, Frank Mir and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović. This is a big night for Cro Cop and Mir fans.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is suppose to be facing Frank Mir this Saturday, too bad he's injured and he needed a surgery. Good thing Cro Cop is ready for the challenge to face Frank Mir in the main Heavyweight bout this Saturday night. I predict that Frank Mir will be victorious against Cro Cop but I'm not that sure. Still, I place my bets on Frank Mir.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, the injured's twin is present in the UFC 119 main event and will face Ryan Bader, the undefeated Light Heavyweight UFC fighter. I predict that Bader will remain undefeated and I'm pretty sure of it. Nogueira is well prepared for this match, but he's not good enough for Bader.
UFC 119 will also feature a Welterweight bout between Matt Serra and Chris Lytle. This fight card has an obvious winner and it's Chris Lytle. Chris Lytle is a tough opponent and Matt Serra will surely be defeated by Chris Lytle.
Two Lightweight bouts will also be featured in UFC 119's main card. I'm not familiar with these Lightweight fighters and I can't predict who will win. I'll leave it to you guys. Sean Sherk vs. Evan Dunham and Melvin Guillard vs. Jeremy Stephens are the Lightweight bouts that will happen in the 119th Ultimate Fighting Championship.
UFC 119 is the first UFC event that will be hosted in Indiana. UFC 119 main event will be broadcasted live from Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The live stream will start at exactly 10:00 PM ET and 7:00 PM PT.
As usual, UFC 199 live play-by-play updates will be posted here at Sports Live Blogger. Just bookmark this page and get back here a few minutes from 10PM ET / 7PM PT.
See you this Saturday night guys! This is gonna be another bloody and thrilling night for all UFC fans across the globe!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:00 PM: The main event has just started! Enjoy UFC 119 guys!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:31 PM: We're currently on the 3rd round of the Melvin Guillard vs. Jeremy Stephens Lightweight bout. It looks like this match will end on a split decision.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:35 PM: Melvin Guillard won via Split Decision! Now let's go to the next match!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:40 PM: The next match is the Lightweight bout of Sean Sherk vs Evan Dunham.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:40 PM: Both are now inside the arena and preparing for the Lightweight bout. Who will win? I really don't know because I'm not familiar with the two fighters.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:50 PM: SopCast channel is now beck. Let's go back to SopCast now because the audio at LiveVSS is a disaster. We've removed the embedded link above.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:51 PM: We currently on the first round of the Sean Sherk vs Evan Dunham match.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:53 PM: Ooops! It looks like Evan Dunham has been wounded.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:54 PM: And we have a black screen at SopCast again. Please stay put it will go back in a few seconds.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 10:55 PM: We're currently on the second round of the Dunham vs Sherk Lightweight bout.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:09 PM: After the bloody 3 rounds, Sean Sherk defeaeted Evan Dunham. He won via Split Decision!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:10 PM: Now let's get ready for the next match. The Welterweight bout of Matt Serra vs Chris Scott Lytle!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:19 PM: Chris Lytle and Matt Serra are both entering the arena. It seems that everybody is booing for Matt Serra. Indiana is Chris Lytle's territory, so obviously, everyone will cheer for him. Good luck to both fighters!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:21 PM: Round 1 of Chris Lytle vs Matt Serra begins! This is a match between two Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Boxing experts! Let's see who's better.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:24 PM: The first few miutes of the round seems to be boring. They are just punching and keeping away from each other. Both are concentrating on defense.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:26 PM: And round 1 has ended! Now let's proceed to the second round. I can here some Matt Serra fans cheering for him right now.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:26 PM: Both are great boxers and that's what we can see right now. No submission or choking attempts yet. I really think this Welterweight bout will end in a split decision. Lytle did an uppercut and the announcer said that Serra was a bit hurt, but it's like that was nothing for Serra.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:29 PM: And now Lytle is punching Serra again and again. It looks like Serra's pretty hurt this time. Lytle is wearing blue and Serra is wearing white.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:33 PM: We're now on the 3rd round and if this end via split decision, Chris Lytle will definitely win tonight.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:37 PM: As predicted, Chris Lytle won via unanimous decision! Yey!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:43 PM: The Light Heavyweight bout of Antônio Rogério Nogueira vs the undefeated Ryan Bader will start in a few minutes. I predict that Ryan Bader will remain undefeated tonight! This is the co-main event tonight and the biggest fight of Bader's career! Rogerio said that this match will be the first loss on Bader's career, but let's see if he can really defeat this young and tough undefeated fighter.
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:47 PM: Both are now entering the arena. This match will definitely be exciting and thrilling!
UPDATE September 25, 2010 11:59 PM: In the first few seconds of round 1, Ryan Bader shows us an impressive performance. In the last minute of the first round, he attempts to defeat Rogerio via submission, but Rogerio escaped. Bader is really doing great in round 1.
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:13 AM: Hell yeah! As predicted once again, Ryan Bader won! He remains undefeated! Now let's head on to the main event of UFC 119!
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:22 AM: Tonight's main event is about to begin. Frank Mir and Cro Cop are both entering the arena.
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:26 AM: Bruce Buffer now introduces both fighters. This is the main event of the evening! Let's all watch this exciting Heavyweight match!
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:27 AM: On the blue corner, former PRIDE 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix Champion Mirko Cro Cop. On the red corner, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir!
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:28 AM: Mir on the white trunks and Cro Cop on the black trunks, the match begins now!
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:36 AM: Round 1 has just ended and the 2nd round has just started!
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:46 AM: We're now on the last round of this Heavyweight bout. Sorry for the lack of updates in this match as I've been watching the match and I forgot to give updates in the first and second round. Round 3 is almost over and I'm pretty sure that this will end via unanimous decision.
UPDATE September 26, 2010 12:47 AM: Wow what a surprise! Frank Mir suddenly knocks out Cro Cop at 4 minutes and 2 seconds of Round 3! Congratulations Frank Mir! Replay videos will be uploaded later.
UPDATE September 26, 2010 3:17 AM: Replay videos are now available from mixedmartialartvideos.com. Click here to view all UFC 119 replay videos.


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Discussion Questions for A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider
by Ishmael Beah
Source: One-Minute Book Reviews
This reading group was not authorized or approved by the author, publisher, or agent for the book. This guide is copyrighted by Janice Harayda, and its reproduction in any form is illegal except by public libraries, which may use it in their in-house reading groups. Other book clubs that wish to use this guide should link to it or check "Contact" page to learn how to request permission to reproduce it.
A Long Way Gone is a memoir by Ishmael Beah, who claims that he joined the government army in Sierra Leone to save his life after rebels destroyed his village and separated him from his parents. A review of this book appeared on Feb. 27, 2007, on One-Minute Book Reviews www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com and is archived in the "Memoirs" category and with the February 2007 posts on that site. [Note: Since this guide appeared, many of the claims in A Long Way Gone have been disputed by reputable journalists, and the publisher of the book has produced no proof that Beah was ever a child soldier.]
The publisher of A Long Way Gone has posted an extensive reading group guide to the book at www.fsgbooks.com that contains questions your club may want to use as a starting point for its discussions. That guide includes samples of the praise the book has received from respected authors or critics. Like most publishers' promotional materials, the online guide does not encourage criticism of the book, cite concerns raised by reviewers, or suggest that you are reading anything other than a flawless work. The following Totally Unauthorized Reading Group Guide is not intended to be comprehensive but only to raise questions not covered by publisher's guide.
Questions For Reading Groups About A Long Way Gone
1) Beah, now in his mid-20s, focuses on the upheavals that began when he was 12 and also covers some earlier events. How good is your memory for events in your life that occurred when you were that age? Can you recall events from that long ago in the detail Beah describes, including such things as hand gestures and a speaker's pauses? If not, are you willing to give Beah credit for remembering them? Why or why not?
2) John Corry, who has reported from West Africa, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "It is permissible to wonder whether Mr. Beah is accurately recalling events and people and what they said." (Feb. 10, 2007, page P8.) Do you agree with Corry? If so, what are some of the things it's permissible to question? Do your questions affect your overall view of A Long Way Gone? Corry is a senior editor of American Spectator, a conservative magazine. Do you believe that critics' liberal or conservative biases affect their reviews? How might liberal and conservative critics have reviewed this book differently?
3) Corry noted in his review that, perhaps to forestall questions about the book, Beah writes: "To this day, I have an excellent photographic memory that enables me to remember details of the day-to-day moments of my life, indelibly." [Page 51] Did you ever know anyone who had a "photographic memory"? Was the person sometimes able to recall events in the detail described in A Long Way Gone?
4) Beah says that the army supplied the young conscripts with "white capsules," presumably amphetamines, to help them stay alert. He adds that the child soldiers also had easy access to other drugs. [Page 121] Beah writes:
"In the daytime, instead of playing soccer in the village square, I took turns at guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing, brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, which was always spread out on the table, and of course the white capsules, as I had become addicted to them." [Page 121]
Are you willing to share with your group whether or not you ever took drugs and how they affected your perceptions of events? Or how drugs have affected the memory of someone you know who used them?
5) Beah describes in one scene how he and friends "lay in the dirt" on a coffee farm near a ruined village and eavesdropped on rebels who played cards and chatted "for hours." [Page 97] He adds that he heard one rebel say his group had just burned three villages:
"Another rebel, the only one dressed in full army gear, agreed with him. 'Yes, three is impressive, in just a few hours in the afternoon.' He paused, playing with the side of his G3 weapon. 'I especially enjoyed burning this village. We caught everyone here. No one escaped. That is how good it was. We carried out the command and executed everyone. Commander will be pleased when he gets here.' He nodded, looking at the rest of the rebels, who had stopped the game to listen to him. They all agreed with him, nodding their heads. They gave each other high fives and resumed their game." [p. 97]
Does it seem to you that Beah and his friends could have been close enough to overhear that conversation yet avoid detection "for hours" by the rebels? Or that if the boys could see a rebel "nod," and others "nodding" in agreement, that the rebels could not see them? What are some possible explanations for how Beah could have observed a conversation in such detail while avoiding detection himself?
6) When this book was published, Beah worked for a respected international organization, Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org. He has also described his experiences at the United Nations and in other settings likely to have included experts who could have confirmed at least part of what he says. How does this affect your view of A Long Way Gone?
7) Beah is a young writer who has clearly survived tragedies that go beyond anything most of us will experience in our lives. Do you believe that because of his youth or suffering he should be held to different literary or journalistic standards than writers who are older or have not suffered as much? Or do you believe that there are standards that all authors should uphold? What are they?
Vital statistics:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. By Ishmael Beah. Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Sarah Crichton, 229 pp., $22. Published: February 2007.
Your book group may also want to read:
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda (Picador, 1999) by Philip Gourevitch. This award-winning book describes the Rwandan genocide, which took place during a time that partly overlaps with that of A Long Way Gone. It also involves some similar events, such as machete killings. But Gourevitch places such events in a wider social and political context than Beah does. Comparing We Wish to Inform You … with A Long Way Gone may enrich your understanding of how events in Sierra Leone fit into the broader pattern of African history during the 1990s. It may also suggest ways Beah could have developed his story differently – for example, by adding more background about the events in his country – without sacrificing narrative power.
As a high school student, Beah wrote an essay about his experiences as a boy solider that appears on the web site for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation www.wagingpeace.org. Search the site for his name or "When Good Comes From Bad."
You can also follow Janice Harayda (@janiceharayda) on Twitter, where she writes about books and related topics.
© 2007 By Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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Morning Minutes: Nov. 9
Word of the Day
falderal \FAL-duh-ral\ (noun) mere nonsense; foolish talk or ideas; a trifle; gimcrack; gew-gaw. — www.dictionary.com
Website of the Day
CloudMagic removes clutter from your tech-heavy life by creating one search box for everything. You can look through email, notes, image-sharing services and more on all of your devices to find what you need.
Number to Know
$1.03 billion: On this date in 1998, a U.S. federal judge ordered 37 U.S. brokerage houses to pay $1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price-fixing. This is the largest civil settlement in United States history.
This Day in History
Nov. 9, 1967: The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine is published.
Today's Featured Birthday
Singer-songwriter Nick Lachey (40)
Daily Quote
"Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love." — Khalil Gibran


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Animals get wild at doggy Halloween parties
LOS ANGELES | Fifteen dogs attended Sue Subkow's first Halloween party in 2005. Half wore costumes, half were naked and all went home in about an hour.
The next year, turnout doubled — this time with a potluck, "Pooch Parade" and awards ceremony. Today, her San Diego Golden Retriever Meetup Group includes more than 1,000 dogs and as many as 80 show up in costumes for her Halloween party.
"Halloween is our biggest shindig of the year," Subkow said.
As Halloween has grown in popularity across the country, pets haven't been left out. In 2010, 9 percent of dog owners surveyed by the American Pet Products Association said they bought a Halloween costume for their dog.
PetSmart Inc., one of the largest pet costume retailers, won't divulge how many they sold last year, but dog and cat apparel buyer Reyna Jew said they more than doubled their assortment this year. The most popular costumes are bees and pumpkins, Jew said.
In the Virginia Highland and Morningside neighborhoods
of Atlanta, hundreds of neighbors, their kids and pets gather with local firefighters every year to celebrate. A fire engine from Station 19, Atlanta's oldest, leads a 400-yard people parade, said fire Capt. Eric Banaszek.
"We know the people here by name," he said. Much of the fun is the photos the firefighters take with the partygoers.
"People bring their dogs, cats and birds to this event," Banaszek said. However, he's only seen dogs in costume.
"Some people do get festive and are creative with Superman and silly stuff, bandanas and masks. Of course the dogs don't tolerate it too well, so many will just put a blanket over their backs," Banaszek said.
But hardcore partiers like Subkow have gotten more elaborate. One year Subkow made her four dogs costumes as three little pigs and "Jack the Wuff."
Subkow's parties have included bobbing for frozen hot dogs and apples. Kimberly Schlegel Whitman, who has written several books, including "Dog Parties: Entertaining Your Party Animal," has had animals bob for tennis balls.
Other tips from Whitman, who is PetSmart's Halloween party expert:
When prepping a yard, because dogs can be territorial, there should be several water stations set up. For Halloween, Schlegel Whitman likes to hollow out pumpkins and use them as bowls.
Every dog should be on a leash, and treats in different sizes, shapes and colors can be placed where only humans can reach and control them. Halloween-themed toys can be put in doggie bags or given out as party favors.
One of the biggest hits at any dog party, no matter what the occasion, is a photo booth. It can have backgrounds and props or not, but the photographer should be on the ground, shooting dogs at eye level.
For decor, rawhide bones make good props in a fake cemetery. Or carve the likeness of a dog in a pumpkin. People who can't draw can get sketches or stencils of almost any dog breed online.
And what do the humans do while the dogs are running, strutting, bobbing and celebrating Halloween?
"People stand around and tell stories about their dogs and why they love their dogs so much. The real beauty of these events is you are celebrating this community you have with other dog owners who understand the bond you have with your pet," Schlegel Whitman said.


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Last evening, the Israel Wine Lovers Club hosted an evening of white wines. The wines were made from three types of grapes: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier.
It's been said that if Chardonnay didn't exist it would have to be invented. No other grape, red or white, ever achieved international recognition as effectively as this grape. It possess chameleon like adaptability to almost any climate and terroir. Compared to the rest of its sisters, this grape is a cinch to grow and thrives at both climate extremes of the viticultural spectrum (and in-between!), but unlike so many other grapes it is also very easy to work with at the winery. It's harvested in almost every wine producing country. If unoaked its taste will remind you of a tart apple, lemon and even pears. When lightly oaked, it brings out the tastes of melting butter, baked apple, nutmeg, oatmeal. When heavily oaked one can taste vanilla, lemon curd, chocolate or woodsmoke.
After Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc is the world's most popular white grape. Unlike Chardonnay, which barely has any aroma, Sauvignon Blanc has a very distinctive strong aroma. It's wine is paler and somewhat light but acidic. One can detect almost any fruit in this wine's flavors, from sour greens to melon, passion fruit or mango. It often has a very definite black currant hint. It also can bring to the fore vegetable flavors like green peas, asparagus and – occasionally – sweet red peppers. Other times it brings out far more earthy flavors. At times it even shows a faint smokiness.
Viognier is a relatively new grape in the international market, the average consumer may never have heard of it before the early 1990s. It's often been blended with Chardonnay, but more and more are we starting to see it stand out on its own. It is a great alternative to Chardonnay, with a nice pleasant aroma. Its most obvious flavor is apricot in all its range, you may also detect faint notes of cinnamon, cardamon and ginger. At times it may resemble a honey-lemon lozenger.
Raffi Sutton who used to write for Globes (Israel's equivalent of our Wall Street Journal) on Israeli wines and later was the editor of an Israeli food and wine magazine, before becoming an investment banker in the US, did the wine presentations. He was ably aided by Avi Ashman – the Club's President and founder – and Eran Elhalal, a graduate of the presitigious Culinary Institute of America, chef and consultant whose recipes and wine pairings have already graced our pages.
The tasting started with a 2009 Dalton Unoaked Chardonnay. This wine was fermented without any barrel influence and aged over the deposits of dead yeast that forms after fermentation. This Unoaked Chardonnay is fruity wine with well-balanced acidity, bursting with citrus and tropical fruit flavours. This particular aging process is known as "sur lie," greatly enhances the complexity and flavor of the wine.
We continued with a 2007 Binyamina Unoaked Chardonnay. Light golden straw in color, a simple wine showing some citrus and tropical fruits but lacks the crisp minerality one hopes for in an unoaked Chardonnay. Unfortunately I found it past its prime.
The third wine of the evening was the 2007 Domaine du Castel C (Chardonnay) Blanc du Castel. Full-bodied, elegant Burgundy style white, showing citrus, pineapple, green apple, toasted bread and fig aromas. While quite promising this wine was certainly "before its time." It hasn't fully matured and the chardonnay flavors were still battling with the alcohol which hadn't fully blended in. Yet, this white wine was robust enough to be consumed with almost any red meat, thus destroying the myth that white wines should only be paired with fish or delicate white meats.
Next came the 2006 Tishbi Special Reserve Chardonnay. Very fruity, lighter, citrus. it's a full bodied dry white wine is made grapes grown in the Gush Etzyon vineyards and harvested by hand. This chardonnay carries the exotic aromas of apricot, melon and peaches. Though considerably cheaper than its predecessor I liked it far better!
That fourth selection was followed by 2007 Yarden Odem Chardonnay. Made entirely from Chardonnay grapes grown on the Golan Heights Odem organic vineyads. Barrel fermentation and sur lie for seven months, produced a complex wine balancing fruit and floral notes with hints of butter and vanilla. Chef Eran suggested an unusual pairing for it… Café Brulé!
The sixth selection was the 2008 Recanati Sauvignon Blanc. With Fresh hay and bell pepper notes, typical of fine Sauvignon Blanc, develop and linger in the bouquet. It had an initial bite almost like a sparkling wine. Outstanding when paired with fish, sushi, risotto and grilled vegetables.
Next came a 2009 Tabor Chalk Sauvignon Blanc. Citrusy, pleasant and light, with a bitter aftertaste. It wotld make a great selection for a hot summer day.
The eighth selection was the 2007 Galil Mountain Viognier. It displayed a clear lemon yellow color. The wine is extremely aromatic with flavors of ripe apricot and nectarine set against hint of oak and honey. Well balanced with delicate acidity, medium body and a long, velvety finish.
The last wine was the 2008 Dalton Reserve Viognier. It starts with a certain smokiness, showing intense, vibrant and complex with spice, floral, fig and melon aromas and flavors. Deep and rich with a long, broad finish. Chef Eran suggested pairing it with desserts that are not too sweet. This wine is by far much better than its price range would suggest!
The participants, enjoyed an evening of Chef Eran's selections of sharp kosher cheeses by Danablue, Gilboa, Shahat, marmalades and grapes. The conversation was great, well worth many a repeat visit.
Benyamina Wines Tasting, Getting Ready for Tomorrow's Tasting